Sir, – So that's what all the fuss is about. The mint inserted the word "that" into the second sentence of the "quotation" from Ulysses and Joycean scholar Terence Killeen assures us that this is no trivial matter (Home News, April 11th). Oh very well, Mr Killeen, you have done the State some service and they know it. Now please, no more of "that". – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN CASSERLY,
Abbeybridge,
Waterfall,
Near Cork.
A chara, – Pomes penyeach. Tiepos fortysex youroweach. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK COTTER,
St Stephen’s Street,
Off Tower Street,
Cork.
Sir, – Given that the Central Bank played a major role in rewriting our current economic history, as it failed to control the profligacy of Anglo, Irish Nationwide and their ilk, perhaps it’s not that surprising that it is now rewriting our literary heritage (“Minting mistake: Central Bank rewrites Joyce”,Home News, April 11th).
Given that Joyce worked in in Nast-Kolb and Schumacher, a private bank in Rome between August 1906 and March 1907 and also taught at La Scuola Superiore di Commercio “Revoltella”, it is unlikely that he would have simply forgiven the error with his oft-quoted phrase, “Mistakes are the portals of discovery”.
Perhaps this 10 euro coin would have met the same fate as the bronze medal he won for third place in the Feis Ceol in 1904 – when Joyce realised that it would not lead to any financial gain, legend has it that he threw it into the Liffey! – Yours, etc,
MARK LAWLER,
Liberties Heritage
Association,
Carmans Hall,
Dublin 8.